In this months Editor's Corner I have written about how, without realizing it, I had lost the fun aspect and photography had become a job, though it's still a job I wouldn't trade for anything. Now digital photography has given me the opportunity to free myself from self-imposed restrictions and to once again make photographs for no other reason than the shear pleasure of doing so. In other words, Treating Photography As a Hobby.

 

Since our last news letter we have acquired two new columnists. Steve Smith owns and operates World of Stock, which is headquartered near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Steve's column, Adventures in Pixelland will cover a wide range of topics. Steve's first column, Avoiding Agency Contract Pitfalls covers some of the items everyone should look for before signing contracts with stock agencies. Steve's second column for us, Keywording Do's and Don'ts touches on a subject important to everyone submitting images to stock agencies.

Our second new contributor is the Denmark based partnership of Cotton Coulson and Sisse Brimberg collectively known as KEENPRESS. Cotton and Sisse's column is KEENTIPS and their first article How to transfer a lifetime of chrome and negatives into new digital images shows us what a formidable task trying to digitize a lifetime of work can be but there are solutions.

KEENPRESS also happens to be our Featured Photographer this month. Be sure to check out KEENPRESS - WORKING IN "WE" to find out more about Cotton and Sisse and see some beautiful samples of their work.

Don't forget to check out our Amazon Affiliate E-shop. By buying books, digital cameras, lenses, memory cards or software through our E-shop, you will not only get some of the best deals around from Amazon.com but you will also help support StockPhotographer.info.

StockPhotographer.info has more contributors, more columns, more news and many more features and resources on the way. If you have questions or answers, please register to participate in our Forums. If you don't see a category or topic listed that you think is important to the industry, let us know and we will include it. By all means, give us your feedback. Tell us what you like or don't like. Let us know what we should include more of or less of.

Orphan Works Copyright Legislation

The U.S. Copyright Office issued its report on Orphan Works a few weeks ago which contains proposed language for an amendment to the Copyright Act. That proposal is now being fast-tracked in Washington and is currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee. This bill has a very good chance of passage before the end of this Session. If the bill is enacted in its current form, it could well be the worst thing that has happened to independent photographers and other independent visual artists since Work Made for Hire contracts.

Richard Weisgrau has once again taken up the cause in his article Orphan Works Copyright Legislation which also contains links to other important information on this subject.

Richard has also begun a multi-part series in his column All About Business on Strategies for Successful Stock Photography.

Our Latest Interview

In our latest interview, Theodoros Papageorgiou spoke with Quentin Bargate, principal photographer to Barleigh Stock regarding his involvement, perspective and experiences in the stock photography field.. Quentin is a photographer undertaking commercial, landscape, botanical, portrait, food and general photography from his studios based in North Essex, England. Quentin is also a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society (LRPS) and a Principal of Quentin Bargate & Co holding a Master’s degree in Marine law and Policy, and having worked in shipping law since 1983.

Bits & Pieces

Betsy Reid, Executive Director of the Stock Artists Alliance has allowed us to publish as a series, the SAA White Paper: Straight Talk About Stock Licensing Models in our Bits & Pieces section. This article should help everyone understand more about how the various stock licensing models work for the creators, users and distributors of images.

Adobe Tip of the Month

We have also started the Adobe Tip of the Month. These tips will cover a wide range of subjects created for photographers as well as designers. The tip this month has information for designers on how to find the right image using Adobe® Stock Photos. See the article How can I use Adobe Stock Photos as part of my design workflow?

Other News

There has been a great deal of other news during the past month so don't miss our regular sections covering Industry News, Software News, Camera News and the latest information on Printers and Scanners.